Its going all right, Parry
said.
The taxi driver stepped back. Parry walked
in and the taxi driver closed the door. This room was trying to be
a waiting room. It was nothing more than an old room with a few
chairs and an old rug and sick wallpaper. The yellow glow came from
the other room. The taxi driver went forward, opened the door
leading to the other room, walked in and Parry followed.
It was another old room. It was very
small. There was a single secondhand barbers chair from about
fifteen years back. There was a big sink and three glass cabinets
stocked with scissors, knives, forceps and other instruments
de-signed to get through flesh. There was a short thin man, seventy
if he was a day, and his hair was white as hair can be, and his
skin was white kidskin, and his eyes were a very pale blue. He wore
a white sport shirt, open at the throat, and white cotton trousers
held up by a white belt. He looked at Parry's face and then he
looked at the taxi driver. The taxi driver chewed on the cigar and
said, Well, Walt-what do you think?
Coley put a hand to the side of his jaw,
supported his elbow with the other hand. He got his eyes on Parrys
face again and he said, Around the eyes, mostly. And the mouth.
And the cheeks. I'm going to leave the nose alone. It's a nice
nose. It would be a shame to break it.
Will I need to come back again? Parry
asked. No. I wouldnt want you to come back again anyway. I'm
taking a big enough chance as it is. He turned to the taxi driver.
He said, Sam, I won't need you in here. Go into the other room and
read a magazine. the taxi driver walked out and closed the door.
Coley pointed to the ancient barber's chair. Parry sat down in it
and Coley began working a pedal and the chair began going down. The
chair went down to a shallow oblique and Coley pulled a lamp toward
the chair, aimed the lamp at Parry's face and tugged at a short
chain. The lamp stabbed a pearly ray at Parry's face.
Parry closed his eyes. The towel-covered
headrest felt too hard against his skull. The chair was
uncomfortable. He felt as if he was on a rack. He heard water
running and he opened his eyes and saw Coley standing at the sink
and working up a lather on white hands. Coley stood there at the
sink for fully five minutes. Then he waved his hands to get some of
the water off and he held his hands up in the air with the fingers
drooping toward him as he came back to the chair and looked at
Parrys face.
Will it take long? Parry
said.
Ninety minutes, Coley said. No more.
I thought it took much longer than that, Parry said. Coley bent
lower to study Parrys face and said, I have my own method. I
perfected it twelve years ago. It's based on the idea of calling a
spade a spade. I don't monkey around. You have the
money?
Yes.
Sam said you can afford two hundred
dollars.
You want it now?
Coley nodded. Parry took bills from his
pocket, selected two one-hundred dollar bills, placed them on the
top of a cabinet neighboring the chair. Coley looked at the money.
Then he looked at Parrys face.
Parry said, Im a coward. I don't like
pain.
Were all cowards, Coley said. there's
no such thing as courage. There's only fear. A fear of getting hurt
and a fear of dying. That's why the human race has lasted so long.
You won't have any pain with this. I'm going to freeze your face.
Do you want to see yourself now?
Yes, Parry said.
Sit up and take a look in that mirror.
Coley pointed to a mirror that topped one of the
cabinets.
Parry looked at himself.
Its a fairly good face, Coley said.
It'll be even better when I'm done with it. And it'll be very
different.
Parry relaxed in the chair. He closed his
eyes again. He heard water running. He didnt open his eyes. He
heard the sound of metal getting moved around, the sound of a
cabinet drawer opening and shutting, the clink of steel against
steel, the water running again. He kept his eyes closed. Then
things were happening to his face. Some kind of oil was getting
rubbed into his face, rubbed in thoroughly all over his face and
then wiped off thoroughly. He smelled alcohol, felt the alcohol
being dabbed onto his face. Then water running again. More clinking
of steel, more cabinet drawers in action. He tried to make himself
comfortable in the chair. He decided it was impossible for Coley to
do this job in ninety minutes. He decided it was impossible for
Coley to change the face so that people wouldn't recognize it as
belonging to Vincent Parry. He decided there wasn't any sense to
this, and the only thing he would get out of it was something
horrible happening to his face and he would be a freak for the rest
of his life. He wondered how many faces Coley had ruined. He
decided his face was going to look horrible but people would
recognize him anyway and he wondered what he was doing up here in
this quack set-up in San Francisco when he should be riding far
away from San Francisco. He decided his only move was to jump out
of the chair and run out of the office and keep on
running.
He stayed there in the chair. He felt a
needle going into his face. Then it went into his face again in
another place. It kept jabbing deep into his face. His face began
to feel odd. Metal was coming up against the flesh, pressing into
the flesh, cutting into the flesh. There was no pain, there was no
sensation except the metal going into his flesh. Different shapes
of metal. He couldnt understand why he preferred to keep his eyes
closed while this was going on.
It went on. With every minute that passed
something new was happening to his face. Gradually he became
accustomed to itthe entrance of steel into his flesh. He had the
feeling he had gone through this sort of thing many times before.
Now he was beginning to get some comfort out of the chair and there
was a somewhat luxurious heaviness in his head and it became
heavier and heavier and he knew he was falling asleep. He didnt
mind. The manipulation of steel against his face and into his face
took on a rhythm that mixed with the heaviness and formed a big,
heavy ball that rolled down and rolled up and took him along with
it, first on the top of it, on the outside, then getting him
inside, rolling him around as it went up and down on its rolling
path. And he was asleep.
He had a dream.
He dreamed he was a boy again in Maricopa,
Arizona. A boy of fifteen running along a blackened street. He was
running alone and eventually he came to a place where a woman was
performing on a trapeze. From neck to ankles the woman was garbed
in a skin-tight costume of bright orange satin. The womans hair
was darkish orange. The woman had drab brown eyes and her skin was
tanned. It was the artificial tan that came from a violet-ray lamp.
The woman was about five feet four inches tall and she was very
thin and she was not at all pretty but there was nothing in her
face to suggest ugliness. It was just that she was not a pretty
woman. But she was a wonderful acrobat. She smiled at him. She took
the trapeze way up high and sailed away from it. She described
three slow somersaults going backwards, going up, going over and
coming down on the trapeze again as it whizzed back. Elephants in
the three rings far below lifted their trunks and lifted their eyes
and watched her admiringly. The trapeze whizzed again and she left
the trapeze again, going up and up and up, almost to the top of the
tent until she described the wonderful series of backward
somersaults that brought her down again to the trapeze. She was
tiny way up there and then she grew as she came down. She stepped
off the trapeze and came sliding down a rope. She bowed to the
elephants. She bowed to everybody. She came over to him. He told
her she was wonderful on the trapeze. She said it was really not at
all difficult and anyone could do it. He could do it. He said he
couldn't do it. He told her he was afraid. She laughed and told him
he was silly to be afraid. She took his arm and led him toward the
rope. The bright orange satin was flesh of flame on her thin body.
She opened her mouth to laugh at him and he saw many gold inlays
among her teeth. He pleaded with her to take him away from this
high, dizzy place, this swirling peril. The trapeze came up to the
limit of its whizzing arc and she left the trapeze, took him with
her and they went up, somersaulting backward together, going up and
over and he fought to get away from her and she laughed at him and
he fought and fought until he got away from her. He went down
alone. Down fast, face foremost, watching the sawdust and the faces
and the colossal dull green elephants coming toward him. Down there
they were attempting to do something for him. They were trying to
arrange a net to catch him. Before they could get the net connected
he was in amongst them, plunging past them and landing on his face.
He felt the impact hammering into his face, the pain tearing
through his face, hitting the back of his head and bouncing back
and running all over his face. He was flat on his back, his arms
wide, his legs spread wide as he looked up at the faces looking
down on him. The pain was fierce and he moaned and the mob stood
there and pitied him. He could see her high up there. The orange
satin twirled and glimmered as she went away from the trapeze in
another backward somersault. She came down wonderfully on the
trapeze and although she was way up there her face was very close
to his eyes and she was laughing at him and the gold inlays were
dazzling in her laughing mouth.
The pain was fierce. It was a burning pain
and there was something above the pain that felt very heavy on his
face. He opened his eyes. He looked up at Coley.
All over, Coley said.
The taxi driver was standing beside Coley
working on a new cigar.
Coley had his arms folded and he looked
down at Parry and said, Stay there for a while. Dont try to talk.
Don't move your mouth. I've got you all taped up. I've left a small
space in front of your mouth so you'll be able to take nourishment.
You'll use a glass straw and you can have anything liquid. If you
want to smoke you can use a cigarette holder. But I don't want you
to move your mouth and I don't want you to try talking. The
bandages can come off after five days. When the bandages come off
you'll look in the mirror and you'll see a new face. It'll be all
healed by then and you can shave.
Parrys eyes talked to Coley.
Coley said, There wont be any scars. I
did a sensational job on you. I think it's the best job I've ever
done. And I've done a lot of exciting things to people's faces.
I've got it down pat, hiding those scars.
The pain was digging and tugging and
digging. It was burning there in Parrys face and gradually he
began to feel it in his arms. He looked at Coley. His eyes asked
another question.
Coley answered, I took off your coat and
rolled up your shirtsleeves. I worked on your arms. The upper part
of the underarm. Up near the armpit, where you can spare the flesh.
I used that flesh on your face. Now Im going to ask you a question
and if the answer is yes I want you to nod very slowly. Do you have
a place to stay?
Parry nodded slowly.
Do you have someone to help
you?
Parry nodded again.
All right, Coley said. When you get
there you can talk to that person with paper and pencil. Now heres
the ticket. You're to sleep flat on your back. Have this person tie
your hands to something so you won't be able to turn over. During
the day I want you to take it easy. Sit in one place most of the
time and read or listen to the radio or play solitaire. Keep your
mind off your face and above all keep your hands away from your
face. In another day or so it's going to start itching but no
matter how bad it is I want you to keep your hands off those
bandages. I guess you can get up now.
Parry sat up. He took himself off the
chair. His shirt was open a few buttons down from the collar and
his sleeves were rolled up high. The upper parts of his arms were
bandaged. He looked at his arms, he looked at Coley and Coley
nodded. Parry rolled his sleeves down and buttoned them. He
buttoned up his shirt and put on his necktie and got into his coat.
Then he walked over to the mirror and took a look at
himself.
He saw his eyes and his nose and a small
hole in front of his mouth. He saw most of his forehead and his
ears and his hair. The rest was all white bandage, the white gauze
padded thickly on his face, the criss-cross of adhesive going back
along with the bandage around the back of his head. The bandage
went under his chin and around his jaws and slanted down around his
neck.
Coley came over and stood beside him. He
said, Theres a lot of wax and goo under that bandage. It's hard
now but in a couple of days it'll be soft and part of it will
become part of your new face.
Parry glanced at his wrist watch. It said
4: 31. He looked at Coley.
Coley said, Ninety minutes. Just like I
told you.
The taxi driver said, We better get
moving.
Parry was looking at Coley and holding out
his hand. Coley took the hand. Coley said, Maybe you did it and
maybe you didnt. I don't know. Sam claims you didn't do it and
I've known Sam a long time. I have a lot of faith in his ideas
about things. That's the main reason I took this job. If I thought
you were a professional killer I wouldn't have any part of it. But
the way it is now I've given you a new face and you've given me two
hundred dollars and that's as far as it goes. I never keep records
of my patients and I never make an effort to remember names. When
you walk out of here you're through with me and I'm through with
you.